Accenture is to increase its intake of IT professionals
in 2007 by 20% to meet strong demand from financial services firms
for specialist skills.
The consultancy and systems integrator will recruit 1,700 IT
specialists this year, up from just over 1,400 last year.
"Financial services is the key industry for all technical
skills. We recognise that some skills are hot skills, so we do
analysis to understand what those hot skills are," said Julia
Harvie-Liddel, Accenture recruitment director for UK and Ireland.
"There is a bigger push for SAP skills than Oracle, Lawson or any
other enterprise resource planning system."
Accenture
aims to recruit 800 staff with experience of implementing IT within
businesses, 500 staff to join the company's graduate scheme for
technical consultants, and 400 people to fill pure technology
roles.
Recruits will work in one of six areas of IT: financial
performance, customer relationship management, strategy, human
performance, supply chain and networks.
New graduates can expect to earn £28,500 a year, with a £10,000
signing-on bonus. Graduates promoted to manager level can expect to
be earning more than £65,000 a year within five years, said
Accenture.
The firm pays bonuses to people with hard-to-find skills or
experience of working in industries with the greatest shortages of
skills.
Accenture's 20% growth in the number of IT posts compares with a
10% growth in Accenture's total UK workforce, which is expected to
rise from 2,000 people in 2006 to 2,200 people in 2007.
Follow the money with a City IT job
Comment on this article:
computer.weekly@rbi.co.uk